It isn’t Christmas without Christmas Cookies

By Sue Davis.

This year the very popular Christmas Market Bake Sale held by the Goschenhoppen Historians at Red Men’s Hall, Green Lane, PA is by pre-order. The drive thru pick-up will be on December 5 only. Please see goschenhoppen.org for ordering information, starting November 14 through November 29.

A bite of history

Among the few possessions early German immigrants brought to America were family recipes. Today’s PA Dutch Christmas cookies descend from those handwritten treasures.

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how old many of the recipes are, but some date back centuries. In Pennsylvania German Cookery by A. Hark and P. A. Barba (1956), a lebkuchen recipe note tells the story of the Abbess of Rosenthal sending her brother, the Count of Nassau, a New Year’s gift of latwerg (plum butter) and lebkuchen in 1556. In general terms, lebkuchen, apeas cookies (spelling varies), sand tarts, and gingerbread cookies seem to have the longest histories. However, there were many family, local and regional variations. German and PA Dutch bakers used ingredients they had available to them.

No matter the kind of cookie, Christmas cookies in PA Dutch areas had a few things in common. All of them are made in great quantities, with some families measuring by lard cans or even wash baskets. In Alfred Shoemaker’s Christmas in Pennsylvania, he quotes an unnamed grandmother lamenting that “people don’t bake Christmas cookies like they used to. When I was a child we baked several wash baskets full. And people don’t bake the dunking kind either anymore, as we did. Why ours were great big cookies, perhaps six to eight inches across the middle.”

Special recipe cookies were made just once a year around Christmas time, with baking commencing weeks before the holiday. Some cookies (if allowed to age) tasted even better a few days or weeks later. Some bakers had to hide containers of cookies from the family cookie “monsters” so the supply would last through the holiday season. Cookies were also shared with shut-ins, friends (maybe the ancestor of today’s cookie swap parties?) and, last but not least, the Belsnickel. Today’s Santa Claus still gets his milk and cookies set out on Christmas Eve.

Cut-out cookies

Many cookies were cut out with tin cookie cutters, mostly of animal shapes. Why animals? One theory states that Northern Europe’s pre-Christian winter solstice traditions included animal sacrifices to the gods Thor, Wodin, and Freya. After conversion to Christianity, the traditions were eventually adapted to baking animal shaped cakes during Christmas holidays.

Gone are the days of local tinsmiths (including my great uncle Jake Stauffer of Boyertown, PA) who made cookie cutters. If today’s baker is one of the lucky ones, she’ll have some old family tin cookie cutters handed down through the generations. But, if you aren’t that fortunate, you can still buy traditional cookie cutters online. CookieCutter.com now makes the well-known H. O. Foose brand, formerly manufactured in Fleetwood, PA.

Fredric Klees, author of The Pennsylvania Dutch (1950), apparently had a great fondness for the old cookie cutters and was chagrined to learn that collectors were buying them up at sales and auctions. Klees says, “If they are bought by people who use them, all is well; but to turn them into collectors’ items and thus deprive children of untold delight is thoughtless and worse. May all such collectors have the itch, the palsy, and the gout!” Pretty strong language, but that author must have had wonderful cookie memories.

Today’s cookies may be smaller, but there is a greater variety with options even for non-bakers. If you’ve never baked cookies, this year might be an ideal time to try out a recipe or two and spread some holiday cheer. The internet is full of Christmas cookie recipes, baking shows, and decorating how-to advice. Or, and possibly more satisfying, browse printed cookbooks for recipes. Public libraries are a great resource for cookbooks if you don’t have any. You’ll find ideas for drop cookies, roll-out cookies, chilled dough roll/slice cookies, bar cookies, cookie press cookies, cookies rolled into balls, springerle cookies shaped in molds, cookies with treats inside, chocolate dipped cookies, and more. Bakers short on time can even purchase ready-made cookie dough. For beginner make-it-from scratch bakers, the easiest types of cookies are drop cookies and bar cookies.

Memories

Ah, cookie memories. Do you have a favorite cookie-centric memory from your childhood? Like when you were allowed to help cut out and decorate the cookies? Or, maybe you got to hold the cookie press and squeeze out pretty flowers or wreathes with that buttery dough? Or, how about the aroma of baking cookies wafting all over the house enticing you to the kitchen to eat the broken bits or misshapen cookies? And, maybe sneak a few more cookies when Mom’s back was turned?

One of my favorite memories is helping with large gingerbread men. They were always dressed up in pink icing and three raisins for buttons, but sometimes we got creative when Mom wasn’t looking (or maybe she was watching, and just let us have our fun). Roll-out cookies were often sprinkled with colored sugar and we kids got to help with that, too. Today my husband is my cookie decorator since he missed out on the annual cookie baking frenzy growing up. His family had delicious holiday traditions, just not cookies.

My mom made several kinds of cookies every year, but often varied the menu. Some recipes were handed down to her and sometimes she tried out a new one. My great grandmother’s salt cookie recipe is being baked by the fifth generation after her and is still a family favorite. My sister has kept the large metal can where Mom stored her 25 pound bags of flour. And much of the family bakes cookies at Christmas. A few recipes are included below, so try your hand at one of them. And, enjoy the holiday season with a nibble or two of a good cookie.

Recipes

Lebkuchen Bar Cookies (from German Cooking, Ruth Malinowski et al., 1978)

Sift together the spices, salt, flour and baking powder. Stir in the almonds and lemon rind.

In a separate bowl beat the eggs and sugar until a ribbon is formed when the beater is removed. Stir in the honey and milk. Gradually stir in the flour mixture, beat until smooth.

Spread the batter in an 11 x 17-inch jelly-roll pan that is well greased and floured. Bake at 400 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes, until the cake is done. While still warm, turn the cake out onto a rack.

To make the almond glaze, mix the confectioners’ sugar, almond extract, rum and 1 to 2 tablespoons water. Beat until glaze is smooth and of the right consistency. Add more water, if necessary, to thin.

Spread the warm cake with almond glaze. Cut cake into 1 x 2 ½ inch bars while still warm.

Spice bars keep 6 to 8 weeks in a sealed container if not glazed. Makes 4 dozen.

Molasses Cookies

1 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
1 c. molasses
1 egg
4 ½ c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 T. ginger
¼ tsp. salt

Mix. Chill. Roll 1/8“ thick and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Allow to cool before moving to rack.

Salt Cookies

2 c. sugar
½ c. butter and lard
1 c. sour milk (you can make milk “sour” by adding 1 T. of vinegar to a cup of milk)
2 t. baking soda
1 t. cream of tartar
1 t. salt

Flour to stiffen to roll out (approximately 5 ½ cups). Bake on greased sheets at 375 degrees for about ten minutes or until done.

*You can use buttermilk as a substitute for sour milk but that might change the flavor of the cookies. Early twentieth century cooks typically had ready access to fresh unpasteurized milk, called “sweet milk” that turned into “sour milk” in several days. Today’s ultrapasteurized milk may not “sour” in the same way as it contains less bacteria. I have figured out that putting the 1 T. of vinegar in a pyrex cup first and adding the milk on top makes it curdle better. Also, microwaving the milk just a little bit to warm it will make the milk curdle almost instantly. No waiting around.

Hickory Nut Cookies

1 cup butter
2 tsp. vanilla
½ c. sugar
2 tsp. water
2 cups flour
1 cup nuts

Cream butter and vanilla. Add sugar, creaming until light and fluffy. Blend in water, stir in flour, mixing well. Add nuts. Shape in one inch balls, roll in colored sugar. Bake one inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet in 325 degree oven for twenty minutes or until firm.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

¾ c. butter/lard
2 eggs
1 ½ c. brown sugar
½ c. sour milk
2 c. flour
2 c. oatmeal
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. raisins

Bake at 325 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes on a greased cookie sheet.

Bibliography

Dietrich, Jeff, and Lucetta Trexler Muth. Folk Art and Foodways of the Pennsylvania Dutch: A Collection of Paintings, Food Lore, and Seasonal Recipes from the Allemaengel in Northern Berks County. Kempton, PA, Albany Township Historical Society, 2006.

Hark, Ann, and Preston A. Barba. Pennsylvania German Cookery: A Regional Cookbook. 2nd ed., Allentown, PA, Schlechter’s, 1956.

Klees, Fredric. The Pennsylvania Dutch. 13th printing ed., NY, Macmillan Publishing Co., 1950.

Malinowski, Ruth, et al. German Cooking. NY, Ottenheimer Publishers, 1978.

Shoemaker, Alfred L. Christmas in Pennsylvania. 40th Anniversary ed., Mechanicsburg, PA, Stackpole Books, 1999.

Weaver, William Woys. Dutch Treats: Heirloom Recipes from Farmhouse Kitchens. 1st ed., Pittsburgh, PA, St. Lynn’s Press, 2016.

Sue Davis is part of the Pennsylvania Dutch diaspora and lives in Brentwood, TN.